LIVE REVIEW: You Me At Six Return To Manchester

Surrey based rock band, You Me At Six, return to Manchester in support of their new album, and to celebrate their first.

This weekend has been predominantly You Me At Six. The five piece returned to Manchester, in a sold out Victoria Warehouse, to support their new album ‘VI’, on Friday night.

They returned again on Saturday night for a much anticipated celebration of their first album, ‘Take Off Your Colours’.

Night one saw support from Scottish band The Xcerts and Yorkshire’s Marmozets. Having missed The Xcerts due to some box office confusion, my night began with Marmozets. The five-piece owned the stage, playing fan favourites such as Move Shake Hide. All five members bounded around the stage, with notable moments coming from front woman Becca Macintyre and drummer Josh Macintyre as he climbed atop his set. Their punk-like aesthetic certainly got the crowd moving, with the audience chanting the band’s name between songs.

The seven song setlist ended on Major System Error from their latest album ‘Knowing What You Know Now’.

At around 9.10, You Me At Six came onto the stage, one by one, to thunderous applause. They jumped straight into ‘VI’ favourite, Fast Forward. Their nineteen song setlist sampled all albums, including a nod to ‘Take Off Your Colours’ with Save It For The Bedroom, during which there seemed to be more crowd surfers than standing audience members. Front man Josh touched upon the Manchester attacks, dedicating ‘Night People’ track Take On The World to the city who ‘came together’. The main set concluded with one of my personal favourites, Bite My Tongue.

You Me At Six returned to the stage for an extra four songs, opening back up with another personal favourite of mine, ‘Cavalier Youth’ trackRoom to Breathe, and closing on ‘Hold Me Down’ track Underdog.

Night two again saw support from The Xcerts and Marmozets. Again, due to another issue at the box office with passes, I only managed to catch Marmozets. Marmozets received a distinctly different reaction on night two; the crowd seemed a lot more subdued, with less enthusiasm to the five-piece. I can only put this down to the crowd being more of a ‘die-hard’ crowd. There has been a long-standing issue between You Me At Six and their first album, especially track Gossip, so the band tend to ignore the album on their tours as much as possible. As such, the album being sampled at all, never mind being played in full, really is a rarity, and the audience were there for that reason, and that reason only. Nevertheless, Marmozets put on a solid performance, with the tougher crowd seemingly spurring them on rather than killing their energy.

At the same time of 9.10, You Me At Six once again entered the stage, one by one, to thunderous applause, and kicked off the night with the opening track of ‘Take Off Your Colours’, The Trust Is A Terrible Thing. The five-piece hurtled through their debut album with every bit of energy I’d have hoped for, embracing the album that kicked off their career. One of the more notable moments came when the band performed one of the album’s slower tracks, Always Attract. The album version of the track has a duet between Frontman Josh and his sister Elissa; a duet that I have never personally seen live. That changed on Saturday. Josh welcomed his sister onto the stage – something that hasn’t been done at the anniversary shows prior to this – and the two siblings performed the song for a stunned audience.

The main set came to a close with the last song from ‘Take Off Your Colours’, The Rumour. The audience screamed the lyrics, and having never heard The Rumourlive before, it is a moment that I will never forget.

The encore included bonus tracks Finders Keepers and Kiss and Tell, as well as sampling tracks from all other albums, and again finishing on Underdog.

You Me At Six gave a weekend to remember. They continue both tours around the UK before departing for the US.